Centrifugal basket.



E. ROBERTS & A. H. GIBSON.

CENTRIFUGAL BASKET. APPLlCATlON FILED JAN- 22. 1915.

1 59, Patented Mar. 12, 1918.

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EUGENE ROBERTS AND ANGUS H. GIBSON, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, ASSIGNORSTO SUGAR CENTRIFUGAL DISCHARGEE 00., OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, A CORPORA-TION' OF UTAH.

CENTRIFUGAL BASKET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed J'anuary 22, 1915. Serial No. 3,834.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EUGENE ROBERTS and Axons H. GIBSON, citizens of theUnited States, and residents of Salt Lake City, State of Utah, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Centrifugal Baskets, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the centrifugal baskets or receptacles ofcentrifugal machines of the kind commonly employed for separating thesyrup from the solid sugar in the process of refining sugar.

The pressure of the large mass of sugar against the circumferential wallof the hasket, due to the high speed of rotation, makes it necessary notonly to make the wall of the basket of fairly heavy metal, but, also, toreinforce the wall externally by means of heavy circumferentialreinforcing means, which, of course, must be arranged so as not to coverthe perforations in the basket wall. through which the syrup escapesunder centrifugal action into the outer casing or curb. Since theperforations in the basket are comparatively coarse, say one-eighth ofan inch in diameter, it is necessary to use a finely perforated screenor sieve'inside the basket, such as is shown in Letters Patent of UnitedStates No. 1,108,098.

in order topermit the circulation of the juice escaping through thefinely perforated screen to the coarser perforations in the basket wall,it has been the common practice to employ a reticulated backinginterposed between the screen and the surrounding wall of the basket,which backing requires to have fairly coarse meshes or perforations inorder to allow such circulation. Trouble is experienced, however, owingto the fact that the backing under the constant centrifugal pressure ofthe heavy sugar tends to flatten against the surrounding basket wall,thus impeding circulation, and also tends to make ridges or breaks inthe finely perforated screen which is pressed against it by the sugar,which ridges or breaks tend to catch against the point of the plow usedfor discharging the sugar and cause considerable injury or damage.

It is the object of the present invention to backing interposed betweenthe screen and the basket wall and so construct the basket wall itselfas to both afford a sufficiently continuous backing surface supportingthe screen to prevent any ridges or roughness being impressed into thescreen itself by the pressure of the sugar, and, also, to afford acomplete and perfect circulation of the syrup to the openings in thebasket wall free from any obstruction.

To this end the invention comprises a basket whose circumferential wallis provided at intervals with perforations for the escape of liquid andwhose inner surface is provided with a series of closely arrangednarrow, shallow grooves arranged to have communication with saidperforations while affording a substantially fiat backing surface tosupport the internal screen and prevent it from buckling or creasingunder the pressure of the sugar.

In the accompanying drawings we have illustrated the preferred form ofembodying the principle of this invention, in which,

F igure 1 is a side elevation in central section of the centrifugalbasket and curb showing the application of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical cross section on an enlarged scale through aportion of the basket wall;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation on an enlarged scale showing the internalsurface of the basket wall.

The general arrangement and construction of the curb 0: and of thecentrifugal basket 25 secured to the supporting and driving shaft 0 isthat commonly employed in this class of machines. The circumferential orside wall 5 of the basket is provided with the usual coarse perforationsb and is reinforced externally to prevent buckling by the rings 5 whichare usually shrunk upon the outside wall of the basket.

The exterior surface of the basket wall 6 remains smooth to get themaximum reinforcing efiect of the external rings 5 The interior surfaceof the basket wall I) is provided with a series of parallel closelyarranged narrow grooves b running around the inside of the basket wall,some of them intersecting the perforations 5 while others havecommunication with said perforations by means of diagonal grooves bwhich intersect the perforations b and aflord c0m- Patented Mar. 12,rare.

munication between all the intermediate grooves and the variousperforations. The grooves b may be say one-sixteenth of an inch in depthand width while the diagonal grooves may be slightly deeper, the objectbeing to keep the grooves small enough so that the intervening ribs forma sufiiciently continuous backing or supporting surface to prevent themetal of the perforated screen which is inserted inside the basket frombeing forced into the interstices or grooves and I thus avoid causingany creasing or roughening of the screen itself that would tend to interfere with the proper action of the plow or scraper in discharging thesugar.

By the above-described construction it is possible to use a solidvcircumferential wall of heavy or thick metal with a smooth outer faceadapted to properly receive the reinlongs the life and efiiciency of thescreen itself on account of the maintenance of the screenin a smooth,unbroken, and uncreased condition.

The closely arranged narrow grooves cutting the areas between adjacentperforations form a complete drainage means for conducting the separatedjuice or liquid to the angularlv disposed grooves which intersect theper oratlons. This arrangement permits the drainage apertures orperforations to be spaced widely enough apart to allow the applicationof the reinforcing ribs without clogging up the perforations.

What we claim is 1. A centrifugal basket embracing in its,

construction a circumferential wall having a series of perforationsspaced apart at a relatively large distance as compared with thediameter of said perforations, a series of grooves cutting through theareas between adjacent perforations, and a second series of groovesintersecting said perforations and angularly disposed with relation tothe firstmentioned grooves to afford communication between saidperforations and the first-mentioned grooves, substantially asdescribed.

2. A centrifugal basket embracing in its construction a circumferentialwall having a series of relatively widely-separated perforations and aseries of relatively close grooves extending circumferentially aroundthe inside face of the circumferential wall between adjacent rows ofperforations, and a series of grooves angularly disposed with relationto said first-mentioned grooves and intersecting both thefirst-mentioned grooves and the said perforations thereby afi'ordingcomplete drainage for the areas between adjacent perforations,substantially as de- 'scribed.

3. A centrifugal basket having a peripheral wall provided with a seriesof spaced perforations, a series of encircling reinforcing ribs arrangedbetween adjacent horizontal rows of perforations, a series of internalclosely-arranged grooves cutting the areas between the perforations andanOther series or grooves intersecting the perforations and aforesaidclosely-arranged grooves in order to conduct liquid from the closelyarranged grooves to the perforations, substantially as described.

In witness whereof, we have subscribed the above specification.

EUGENE ROBERTS.

, I ANGUS H. GIBSON.

Witnesses for Eugene Roberts:

GEORGE F. KENNY,

WM. S. SHERWIN. Witnesses for Angus H. Gibson:

A. CoLUMBUs SMITH,

LYMAN A. Cnms'rr.

